BUDAPEST, September 19. /TASS/. The pagers that blew up in Lebanon may have been bought from Taiwan’s Gold Apollo by Bulgarian Norta Global Ltd, and not by Hungarian BAC Consulting, Hungary’s Telex news portal said, citing sources.

According to its information, the Budapest-registered BAC Consulting served merely as an intermediary with the Taiwanese company, while the Sofia-based company was directly involved in purchasing the devices. Telex insists that Norta Global Ltd was "the one that arranged the delivery of the equipment, and sold it to Hezbollah." According to the news portal, these devices "were never in Hungary."

Telex noted that the Bulgarian company was founded in 2022 and belongs to an unnamed Norwegian national. "On paper, it is engaged in project management, but it is presumed that it does not manufacture anything," the news portal said. It noted that another 196 companies are listed as registered at the same address. Telex pointed out that it is not yet known as to how informed Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, the head of the Hungarian company, may have been about the activities of Norta Global Ltd, however, it insists that BAC Consulting "was only needed to hide the Bulgarian thread."

Earlier, Reuters said, citing sources, that Israeli intelligence agency Mossad may have planted explosives in 5,000 pagers ordered by the Lebanon-based Shiite party Hezbollah from Taiwan’s Gold Apollo. However, the company’s founder and president, Hsu Ching-kuang, stated that Gold Apollo did not manufacture the devices that detonated in Lebanon. The company stated that Gold Apollo had authorized "BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC."

Meanwhile, in an interview with NBC News, Barsony-Arcidiacono denied her company’s involvement in the incident. According to her, the company does not manufacture any pagers but serves as an intermediary.

Multiple explosions of communication devices occurred in Lebanon on September 17 and 18. On the first day, a large number of pagers blew up almost simultaneously in various regions of Lebanon. According to the country’s Health Ministry, 12 people, including two children, were killed, and 2,800 more were hospitalized. On the following day, a new wave of blasts swept across Lebanon. This time, walkie-talkies, phones, fingerprint scanners, as well as devices operating on solar and lithium-ion batteries exploded. At least 20 were killed and 460 were injured in the repeat attack.